Color measurement systems help to improve operational efficiency and product quality in supply chains. For example, color approval offices for the global apparel supply chain, apparel mills and dye houses, paint stores, textile printing shops, carpet manufacturers, manufacturers of wood panels, tiles, vinyl sheets, and laminates, and other industries relying on the digital color workflow require accurate color evaluation and visualization.
However, color measurement is often desirable in less formal circumstances as well. For instance, one might wish to measure the color of the paint on a wall and find a closest matching color from a database of stored colors. In such cases, the equipment available to perform color measurement is usually less sophisticated than that used in industrial supply chains. For instance, the average person does not typically keep dedicated color measurement equipment, such as a spectrophotometer, on hand.